


Don’t Tread Ground Forbidden to Me

by RichmanSFW



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Never a bad time for a snack right?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 10:34:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28723692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RichmanSFW/pseuds/RichmanSFW
Summary: The thief mourns that which never was.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren
Kudos: 16





	Don’t Tread Ground Forbidden to Me

The day was cold, horribly so; its chill still seeping into Leblanc with an almost sordid kind of glee. Unwavering and persistent. It’s never bothered him more than it does at this very moment. The cold was but a cruel undercurrent to help channel his... seemingly one-sided show of sorrow. Ren stands there, never meek but hardly mastered, taking it all in, as his eyes refuse to leave Akechi’s frame. The detective stands just inches from him, the prince’s back turned, staring straight ahead.

Resolute as ever.

“What’s a life worth in a reality that was... _cooked up_ just to satisfy someone else...?” Akechi’s head cocks to the side in a slight manner, the chestnut of his eye visible to Ren now. His voice remains as cold as the current that awaits him outside. “I say... _none.”_

It hurts. It hurts more than Ren cares to admit. Man of few words as he normally was, this was... wholly familiar and yet still so strangely, horrifyingly new. He knows. He knows Akechi will be there by his side in the end, with the rest of the Thieves. With Ryuji, Sumire, Ann and all the rest, but... it’s the knowing thereafter; it was always there in the backdrop, lingering in his mind. Ren knew it far before he ever conceived of possibly feeling it - and the world of difference that was the two. They’ll face Maruki together.

But...

Akechi never shied away from that fact. Here he stands, a pillar of strength - more manufactured that it was genuine. Still... for a moment Ren sees through him, sees his shoulders slack and his body tense. It’s as though the detective had initially turned away in fear of something worse. Of what? 

To look him in the eye was too much.

“We have to win this,” he says, “no matter what.”

It’s in that moment Ren finds himself where he found the others all those weeks ago. In the strange sort of realness that was Maruki’s reality they were... happy. A false, fabricated sort of happiness perhaps but what else was there? Sometimes that could be... enough. He knows that. He knows that and still he shook them of their many dreams. It was necessary, though the right thing was hardly ever the easy choice. He learned that, they all had. But the pain he felt in doing so hadn’t left, it merely lingers. The guilt. The guilt that rears its ugly head whenever he sees Ryuji smile at him, when Makoto lingers just a moment too long before leaving, when Morgana stares up at him dutifully. 

When Futaba and Sojiro share a heartbroken laugh over some curry. 

Ren let’s slip the smallest gasp. It’s quiet but still, Akechi hears it just before walking off with what little pride he has left. He hasn’t the time for some show of weakness.

Ren stops him with a grab of the arm anyway. All this time and now, the pain of undoing what has been done finally spills from him in a brief show of physicality. A moment of weakness. Akechi makes no noise but the visible change is clear.

The look Akechi gives when he steps back, slowly, would have meant death for some but not him. Not Ren. There was a pain seen in the detective’s eyes that most others failed to grasp but Ren sees it - in truth, he always did.

It is soul-crushing now. 

Akechi is mad, his cheeks almost beet-red from the frustration. He glances at the gesture then removes his arm from Ren’s touch with a harsh yank. He wishes to say something, anything. It’s clear Ren does too. In truth nothing would help, nothing could phase either man—whether it be several dozen sentences or those three little words.

Akechi can’t let him win in that regard.

_“Let me go, you idiot,”_ he hisses, words the detective hardly means in a literal sense anymore. He knows not what Ren is thinking but he makes an educated guess. 

And Ren is... silent. For almost a moment too long. But he musters what strength remains in his core with a small smile and confident hum. “Stay,” he replies. Akechi gives him a particular look but as the thief steps back, there’s something the detective notices by the booth now. Something that wasn’t there before. 

The chessboard. 

Akechi glances toward it, then back to Ren. The latter man knows that smirk of his disgusts Akechi in the best possible way, but right now it’s... sweet, almost saccharine. Too much. Something the detective needs no matter how repulsed it makes him feel. Nothing but pain and disappointment await them both. The second he walks out that door, his future fades in favor of the many. There was no escaping it. No sense in running. 

Ren’s features wear nothing but the look of an earnest man, an expression both loving and sincere. Words... were never entirely his forte but he tries. For Akechi, he always did. “Stay,” he repeats, “just... for one more game. Eh?” They’ll face the end. Together. In time.

Leblanc remains cold, the chill outright refusing to quell in spite of the puttering heater, but in that moment there’s another shift in Akechi’s posture. He... fights back the wealth of annoyance in his being because something else lies deeper still, something he often refuses to confront. 

A small and reluctant but... earnest smile meets his lips. Akechi agrees to one last game and... he says something, mouthing some set of words Ren can’t quite make out.

For a moment, Leblanc feels warm again.

And then, Ren wakes suddenly from his dream.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow [@RichmanSFW](https://twitter.com/RichmanSFW) to keep up with my stories, my commission info, and my insanity.


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